MayPole Dancing with Little Ones and Families
from imagination through circle time to a May Fair, a story from our archives
Happy May!
The ancient springtime festivals are welcome rituals after a long or not-so-long winter, and children thoroughly enjoy their celebrations of the sunlight and the burst of growing forces in nature and in themselves. Dancing around a MayPole with simple patterns stirs our joy of moving together, singing together, and enjoying the pace for rhythmic patterns to evolve.
For little ones, simplified experience around a center with colored ribbons has s beauty and a coherence with the world the young child knows. They know their home and family, and are beginning to venture ouwardly, away for a few moments of independence, and then return reassuredly to the circle of the family. Life is good. Life is secure.
Introducing the Spring Story and Archetypes of Spring
In the spring story, Uffe the Gnome Goes to Sea, after the friends float down the river on their raft build of logs, they wash up ashore a fine beach where they are met by the kind Fisherman and his wife, and, after being fed and well-rested again, are invited to join in the May dance.
For little ones, simplified experiences in a circle around a center with colored silks or ribbons have beauty and a coherence with the world the young child knows. They know their home and family, and are beginning to venture out for a few moments, and then return to the circle of the family. Life is good. Life is secure.
May Dancing in Circle Time
In the early childhood classroom, at this point there is no MayPole (yet) but me, in the center of the room. The children, following the gestures of the story, have been rested and fed by the Fisherman’s Wife, are sitting in their listening places on the rainbow wall. Each is invited out in turn to take a corner of a colored silk cloth while I hold onto the opposite corner.
As we hand out the silks we sing the song, “Here’s a Branch of Snowy May, A Branch the Fairies Gave Me.” (Here’s a link to the tune.) Soon the radiating lengths of silk help the children form the circle, which begins to move with the children walking forward, clockwise, invited to hold their colors high.
After a few choruses my arm is wrapped tightly with spiraling colors and the children are left with just a small bit of cloth still in their hands. I sing out gently for a “stop, change hands, and turn around, to go the other way” and they continue forward until the silks are unwound. Ideally.
Of course many things go awry. It’s part of the fun. Corners of silks are dropped and recovered and some children lose their way by walking more slowly or quickly or get lost in the circling, but the gentle pace of the tune and walking offer a serene and safe and often magical experience. As we return to the story on subsequent days, our May dancing gets smoother and we add another song, “Here We Go Round the MayPole High” which is the song we’ll dance to at the upcoming May Fair next weekend.
At the May Fair
At the May Fair, the children will see the MayPole for the first time, beautifully beribboned and crowned with a wonderful capped wreath of flowers and vines, just like the ones capping our heads.
Musicians and parents will gather around, and we’ll hand out the ribbons just like we did the silks in the movement room. We’ll sing the same songs, with support from our friends and families, and we finish with a big bow together before dropping our ribbons into the gentle breeze (or blowing winds of the San Francisco bay area.) Afterwards, the older children and parents will join in some simple weaving variations for all to enjoy.
The woven MayPole stands tall in the quiet glade at the end of our story, and also at the end of the May Fair. In the story, the Fisherman’s son leads them safely home with his lantern. After the May Fair, the children leave for home with their families, tummies full of strawberry shortcake and whipped cream, with songs, flowers, sunshine, and colored silks still dancing their springtime brightness in our hearts.
From our Archives 2018
Neighborhood PlayGarden May Fair
